The hardest part, I think, is accepting that the dreams you had, the ones you optimistically banked on, will may not come to fruition. You believed in something to the point where you saw your future life, unfolding in front of you, and, although the details of that road remained indistinct, the general direction was obvious, and the eventual destination was fairly clear. Unfortunately, sometimes dreams are just that, dreams.

So, when the skies become dark and the rains begin, your already indistinct path seems lost, and, you are now forced to turn around and look at the life you do have instead of the one that might have been. That reality is never as good as the dream, or what you were hoping for. You’ve already been there, you’ve already done that; and, don’t your accomplishments and blessings seem just a little bit paler without the reflected glory of your wished-for future? Now your future seems like a grayed-out version of your past, continuing to plod along the same well-worn trail, when what you were hoping for was a new path, an improved version of the present.

But nothing in this Life is guaranteed, unfortunately. Not even, in fact, that your road of golden hope is forever dimmed to gray, and cannot be reclaimed. For that you get up again and again and keep trying.